What I Did On My Summer Vacation, by Ben Wenk - grade 3

My summer vacation was a good vacation.  I spent it at Three Springs Fruit Farm.  I learned a lot of things while I was there.

In May, it rained too much.  The ground was very wet.  Many crops could not be planted.  I learned to be patient.  I learned what the best conditions were to grow a fungus scientists call Venturia inaequalis.  My dad calls it "apple scab".  Many of the rains brought hail stones and rain drops.  Strawberries were tough with all the rain... too.  My friend Matt stopped by the President's house and asked him a question.  We tried to have my friends visit, but it didn't work out.  They wanted to plant... too.  All our customers at our markets were cheery and friendly despite the rain and May was good.


Then in June the ground dried out.  Many things were planted.  I learned what apple scab looks like on apple leaves.  I learned to evaluate hail damage in a very big... way...  When we finally had everything planted, we started to pick more fresh things like squashes and cherries and many people ate them.  That was good.  We made new friends in Baltimore at the Fells Point Farmers Market.  The new market made us very busy but we were ok.  Toward the end of June, it was dry and I started to learn about irrigation.  Our truck broke.


In July, I learned a lot about irrigation.  I learned to run the irrigation at night.  Then, when that wasn't enough, I learned to run some irrigation in the morning, and some at night.  Then, I learned to fix broken irrigation lines and run the irrigation pump some more.  Dad said this is a drowt.  I didn't like the drowt.  Then customers sent us pictures of their favorite things and it made me feel happy again.  I learned what scab looks like on apples.  Our truck got fixed.


When August came, things were doing ok.  The drowt broke and we got rain.  There were a few more hailstones but Dad said its ok.  People really liked the peaches.  People liked the apples also.  Many people also liked tomatoes and other stuff.  Many people too used the internets and ordered stuff and they liked that too.  Then one day the earth shook and it was weird.  Then, we met Irene and nobody liked her.  She was a big meanie and we told her to go away, then she wouldn't go away and then she did.  But when she was here she did mean things like push our trees and push our fruit and kept us away from our customers.  What a butthead.  Mom doesn't like that language.


I had fun on my summer vacation.


Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah.


From Our Farm, to Your Home,


Farmer Ben
Mrs. Weidner's 3rd Grade Class
Bendersville Elementary School